Perampanel is a pharmaceutically active agent, currently in clinical phase 3. It can be used to treat Parkinson's disease, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis.
Perampanel, having the following chemical formula
is also known as E 2007, ER 155055-90 and 3-(2-cyanophenyl)-1-phenyl-5-(2-pyridil)-1,2-dihydropyridin-2-one
Various methods of synthesis of such molecules are known, such as those reported in EP1300396, EP 1465626, EP 1772450, EP 1764361 and EP 1970370.
Many of the methods of synthesis of such active substances reported by the prior art use the key intermediate 5-(2-pyridil)-1,2-dihydropyridin-2-one also known as 2,3′-bipyridin-6′(1′H)-one having the following chemical formula:

Other methods use the synthetic precursor of this intermediate known as 2-methoxy-5-(pyridin-2-yl)pyridine or 6′-methoxy-2,3′-bipyridine having the formula:
2,3′-bipyridin-6′(1′H)-one. it is in fact prepared by simple acid-catalysed demethylation of the 6′-methoxy-2,3′-bipyridine as is reported in the prior art.
Various ways of synthesising 2-methoxy-5-(pyridin-2-yl)pyridine are known. The process summarised in Diagram (I) below is described in WO 2001096308:

Such process highlights clear disadvantages such as the need to operate in cryogenic conditions (T=−78° C.) using special equipment and the need to isolate boronic acid via work-up. In addition the use of 2-Bromopyridine is required, which exacerbates the production of waste compared to 2-chloropyridine.
Another process described in WO 2004009553 is summarised in Diagram (II):

Disadvantages of this process include the use of high molecular weight benzene-sulfonyl pyridine entailing a scarce atom-economy of the process and the need to operate at low temperature T (−78° C.) using special equipment.
Lastly, a completely different process is described in WO20087093392 for the preparation of 2,3′-bipyridin-6′(1′H)-one (Diagram (III)) which however does not include the preparation of the intermediate precursor 2-methoxy-5-(pyridin-2-yl)pyridine:
